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On October 22, during "An Evening with Khaled Hosseini," AP Correspondent Kimberly Dozier will moderate a panel discussion of distinguished guests with direct ties to Afghanistan. The panel will consist of Khaled Hosseini, international bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Ambassador Said T. Jawad, Nushin Arbabzadah and Shamila Kohestani. The event is part of Return to Afghanistan, a weeklong exploration of Afghan history, culture, humanitarian aspects, and refugee challenges. All proceeds benefit The Khaled Hosseini Foundation.

I want to speak out for those who can’t speak for themselves. I set out to live every day with grace, honor and a degree of hopeful stubbornness. my goal is always to change history for the better.

Easton, MD (PRWEB)October 18, 2010

The Women & Girls Fund of the Mid-Shore has announced that Associated Press correspondent Kimberly Dozier (http://www.kimberlydozier.com) will moderate a panel discussion during “An Evening with Khaled Hosseini” on October 22 at the Avalon Theatre in Easton MD. The event is a feature component of a weeklong program titled Return to Afghanistan, an exploration of Afghan culture, history, and humanitarian aspects, held October 15-24.

Kimberly Dozier’s fourteen-year career as a foreign correspondent has taken her all over the world. She covered the Middle East and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region extensively for CBS Evening News, CBS’s Sunday Morning, The Early Show and CBS Radio News, as well as the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Monitor Radio, the Voice of America and the BBC World Service. Her assignments for television and radio have spanned several continents—the war in Iraq, the invasion of Afghanistan, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the Kosovo refugee exodus, Vladimir Putin’s election, the downing of the U.S. spy plane in China, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the violence of Northern Ireland’s troubled peace process and the Khobar barracks bombing in Dhahran. She has interviewed dozens of newsmakers, including Gerry Adams and Yassir Arafat.

From 2003 to 2006, Dozier worked primarily in Baghdad, based in her home bureau in Jerusalem. From 2007 to 2010, she was a CBS News correspondent, covering the White House and the Pentagon. In 2010, she joined the Associated Press as a correspondent covering intelligence and counterterrorism. She remains at the forefront of cutting-edge journalism and continues to report from the frontlines of today’s hotspots.

Dozier has received multiple awards, including a 2009 Sigma Delta Chi award for her coverage of troops on the home front for the CBS Evening News, a 2008 Peabody Award and the 2008 RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow Award for a CBS News Sunday Morning report on two women veterans who lost limbs in Iraq. She received another Murrow Award in 2002 as part of the CBS News radio team reporting on Afghanistan. She has also received three American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) Gracie Awards–in 2000, 2001 and 2002–for her radio reports on Mideast violence, Kosovo and the Afghan war, as well as the organization’s Grand Gracie Award in 2007 for her body of television work in Iraq. She was the first woman journalist recognized for her Iraq reporting with a John Reagan “Tex” McCreary award from the National Medal of Honor Society. She also received the Association for Women in Communication’s 2007 Helen Duhamel Achievement Award for media professionals who have made significant achievements in their professions while overcoming extreme hardships or challenges and who have used their First Amendment rights to give back to society.

Dozier was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in human rights and Spanish and from the University of Virginia in 1993 with a master’s degree in foreign affairs, Middle East. She has residences in Jerusalem and London and is currently on assignment in CBS News’ Washington, DC bureau.

“I want to speak out for those who can’t speak for themselves,” she says. “I set out to live every day with grace, honor and a degree of hopeful stubbornness. Whether in the dirt of the aftermath of a bomb scene, in a hospital room, or making coffee in a field press office, my goal is always to change history for the better.”

In 2008, Dozier published Breathing the Fire, Fighting to Report and Survive the War in Iraq (Meredith Books), a best selling memoir about her full recovery (after being told she would never walk again) from a car bomb that hit her CBS team in May 2006 while reporting on a story in Baghdad about American soldiers working with Iraqi security forces. The bombing killed Captain James Alex Funkhouser, the U.S. Army officer her team was filming, along with his Iraqi translator “Sam,” and Dozier’s colleagues, cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan.

On October 22, Kimberly Dozier will moderate "An Evening with Khaled Hosseini" (https://sites.google.com/site/return2afghanistan/panel-discussion), a discussion with a panel of distinguished guests who have direct ties to Afghanistan. Featured guest, Khaled Hosseini, is the author of two international bestsellers, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. In 2006, the United Nations Refugee Agency named Hosseini a goodwill envoy to the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). Inspired by a UNHCR trip to Afghanistan in 2007, Hosseini has been working to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through The Khaled Hosseini Foundation (http://www.khaledhosseinifoundation.org).

Dr. Hosseini will be joined by special guest Ambassador Said T. Jawad. Other panel guests are Nushin Arbabzadah (http://www.international.ucla.edu/southasia/people/person.asp?Facultystaff_ID=786) and Shamila Kohestani (http://www.drewmagazine.com/2009/04/my-journey-from-kabul). Arbabzadah is Visiting Scholar at UCLA, and an Afghan author, journalist, analyst, and translator. She specializes in media, politics, and society in contemporary Afghanistan. Kohestani is a former captain of the Afghanistan Girls Soccer Team who was forced from her home by the Taliban. She is now a student at Drew University in Madison, NJ, where she is a devout Muslim, an advocate for women’s rights, and the recipient of the ESPN-ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

"Images from Afghanistan" (https://sites.google.com/site/return2afghanistan/-images-from-afghanistan-photo-exhibition), a major photography exhibition, is another featured component of this fascinating week. This unique exhibit diplays remarkable images from three internationally-acclaimed photographers: Steve McCurry, Joseph N. Hoyt, and Zalmaï. Discover many sides of Afghanistan through these compelling images in a stunning exhibition that artfully depicts Afghanistan’s bygone days of peace and prosperity with contrasting scenes of a war-scarred land, life in refugee camps, and the repatriation of Afghanis to their homeland. The exhibit is open daily from October 16-24.

“In a world where the sound bite prevails,” says Alice Bower, founder of the Women & Girls Fund, “our exhibition provides an opportunity to experience a richer, more nuanced picture of Afghanistan and a striking portrait of the enduring spirit of its citizens.”

On October 20 at 7pm, the Chesapeake Film Festival presents a screening of "The Kite Runner" movie (http://www.thekiterunnermovie.com) at the Avalon Theatre. The St. Michaels Library will host a free showing of the film on October 22 at 11am.

All proceeds from “An Evening with Khaled Hosseini” will be donated to The Khaled Hosseini Foundation (http://www.khaledhosseinifoundation.org). The foundation provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan by focusing on projects that provide shelter to refugee families, economic opportunities and jobs for women, and education for children. Initiatives include scholarships to students who have immigrated to the United States under refugee status and to women pursuing higher education in Afghanistan.